HUNTINGTON STATION, NY – The Whitman Village Community Room was filled to capacity for this celebration where members of the Whitman Village Senior Citizens Club gathered together to celebrate and honor Breast Cancer survivors in an Awareness Celebration Program on October 16th.
Kevin Thorbourne, Town of Huntington Director of Human Services Department and the Director of Minority affairs opened the program, thanking everyone for coming, thanking the Town and all who worked together to make today a success. Supervisor Smyth spoke about breast cancer awareness being a front and center issue with the town and Councilwoman Teri Mari, who is a very outspoken advocate for awareness and a survivor and to reach out to her if anyone needed to talk about anything at all, Legislator Sanin spoke on the importance of bringing awareness to all, and the great work that the Whitman Village Senior Citizen Club and NAACP were doing to bring awareness to members. The opening prayer was given by Pastor Anthony Mitchell, after which Darlene Washington gave a brief message on the significance of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Yvette Stone then introduced the guest speaker, Tracey Edwards, whose passion, commitment and excellence have long defined her leadership. A breast cancer survivor, Tracey is active on many non profit boards, and has held many leadership roles.
Tracey Edwards, New York State NAACP First Vice President began by asking for a moment of silence to honor those who did not survive, reminding all of why it is necessary to speak up and get involved. She spoke of the honor to be at this celebration, and being surrounded by fellow survivors in the room, many of them family, calling it a blessing. She spoke about the challenges black women face with breast cancer, being diagnosed younger, with more aggressive forms, and facing barriers to care and research. There’s not enough research in terms of breast cancer for black women, and that partly because we, as black women, don’t tend to participate in a lot of the research that can then help us, because we are so busy trying to raise our families, right? We are not as willing to do all of those things, but we really, we have to do that in order to help go forward. I didn’t know anything about the BRCA test, right? When I learned about it I made sure my daughter took the same test. Sharing her own experience, she emphasized the importance of family, community, and hope in overcoming the disease. Now a proud survivor, she encourages all women to prioritize early detection and use their stories to inspire others, reminding everyone that a diagnosis is not the end, but the start of a new journey.
Ending the program, a rose was given to the Breast Cancer Survivors in the Senior Citizens Club and a delicious buffet meal was served.
Photography by Diane Schaber. Videography by June Margolin.
